The week ahead

SAN ANTONIO — The Spurs capped an undefeated week with their most impressive performance of the young season, crushing New York 120-89 in a Sunday matinee at Madison Square Garden.

They’ll finish their stretch of five games in seven days tonight in Philadelphia against a familiar face: former Spurs assistant Brett Brown, who has the Sixers playing better than anyone expected. A pair of creme-filled cupcakes follow, giving the Spurs an excellent chance to run their win streak to seven straight with another unbeaten week.

at Philadelphia (4-3), 6 p.m. Monday

Brown said during training camp that the Sixers, apparently setting themselves up to fail to maximize their chances in the draft lottery, have six NBA-caliber players on their roster. If so, those six are giving the Sixers absolutely everything they have, and their opponents everything they can handle. Particularly impressive is first-round pick Michael Carter-Williams, the early favorite for Rookie of the Year after averaging 18.7 points, 8.1 assists and 2.6 steals.

Washington (2-3), 7:30 p.m. Wednesday

OK, so maybe the Wizards don’t deserve cupcake status. (We’ll save their share for the Jazz.) Indeed, they edged Brooklyn in overtime in their last outing to bring themselves to the cusp of .500. They’ve got a solid offense led by the healthy John Wall (19.6 ppg, 9.8 apg). But their defense has been so atrocious that head coach Randy Wittman drew a fine from the NBA for cursing while describing their lack of effort (link NSFW) during a recent loss to Philly.

at Utah (0-7), 8 p.m. Friday

Now we get to the baked goods. The Jazz are the team everyone was expecting the Sixers to be — hopeless, hapless and doomed for the depths of the standings. The future is bright with acres of cap space coming free next summer, and a potential shot at the rights to draft Andrew Wiggings. In the meantime they’re going to have to take their lumps, as they’ve already done seven times by an average of 13 points per game, the worst average margin in the NBA.